Dead Man Walking
by Solum Ambulantem
Summary: A world in ruins, an exiled man, a village under siege, a broken friendship and a crippled dragon. The beginning of a adventure that will last a lifetime.
1. This is Berk

So it finally happened, after years of war, horror and devastation.

It seemed so strange at first, we had survived hundreds of years of fighting with each other, years of arguing over who had the strongest weapon or who could kill the most amount of people in the least amount of time. For the first time in thirty years we had actually achieved peace, only to have it blown up in one single bloody week.

**IT** happened, the thing that mankind has talked about for centuries. Some of us feared it, others even hoped or begged that it would happen during their lifetime:

Armageddon, the end of the world, Ragnarok, the total and utter annihilation of earth and mankind...

Wow... this is a really gloomy start of my tale, isn't it?...

... ...

So, where was I?... ah, yes the utter and total annihilation and so on...

The world ended in the year of 2050 when a new kind of spices was discovered, or rather re-discovered. The ironic thing is, we kinda saw it coming. Nearly since the dawn of time have we told stories about those flying lizards, how they kidnapped young princesses and then was slain by knights in shining armor, or how their breath could torch hundreds of men in a matter of seconds. Sadly, there weren't any knights around to slay them when the dragons returned, although machine guns and tanks seemed to work a hell of a lot better than an old sword. Not that we were ready for them or anything. Unlike 2012, there wasn't an Mayan calender telling us that the dragons would return and that made all the difference.

No one is really sure where the dragons came from in the beginning, some say that they came from the north of Europe, somewhere by Scandinavia, others say that they came from Africa(just as we did) and have just been sleeping there since the dawn of time. Some even say that they were a failed government experience that got lose, but most of us didn't care about were they came from, it´s kinda hard to really care about anything when everything you know and everyone you love gets decimated in a giant blast of fire and death.

So what happened? Were the dragon friendly? Were they intelligent enough that they understood what was happening? Did we keep the peace we had fought so hard for and worked together with the dragons for a brighter tomorrow? Or did we panic and tried to nuke every single dragon we could find.. The fact that we already have had two world wars and nearly started a third one, should provide you with an answer: The human race isn't a friendly one.

Though in hindsight; trying to nuke **moving** targets, when they were in highly populated areas? Not the smartest idea this worlds so called leaders had, especially when it turned out that all of the dragons didn't die in the attack.

So if the world ended and we were all killed, how am I telling you this now?

Well it turns out that the human race are a really stubborn bunch, at least when it comes to surviving the end of the world. Even though most of the worlds cities were destroyed and the few of us who survived were literally blasted into the stone age, we fought on and survived.

By 2056 humanity had manged to create a kind of society consisting of a number of small villages in the north of Scandinavia.

My story begins four years later, in 2060 , in one of those small villages:

This is Berk.

* * *

It all started with a relatively calm night.

Parents tucked in their children, old friends shared a drink of mead by the fire, guards half-asleep on their posts. Everything seemed to be perfect.

I was observing the village from the roof of my home, enjoying the cool night breeze as it swept through my hair and made my clothes ripple slightly. It felt weird, seeing the village so peaceful yet again. Usually the nights here were filled with the sound of fighting and the screams of the dying as the dragons rained fire and death upon the village, not that I was complaining; I loved to be able to sleep trough a whole night without finding out that dragons realized that they really hated **your **house and decided to burn it to the ground(there is something very stressful about waking up just to find that everything around you is a burning inferno, can't put my finger on what though).

We had now had four weeks of dragon-free nights and people were actually starting to believe that the dragons were gone for good and that meant that the guards were lazy, they could often be found playing dice or drinking mead instead of being at there post.

It frightened me, how not even a month of "peace" made us drop our guard so easily. What would happen if the dragons decided to attack us now. We would not get the usual warning and wouldn't have any time to prepare us, the attack wouldn't be an attack any more; It would be a slaughter!

Sighing, I turned away from the lights of the village and walked the few steps to the ladder I had placed there earlier and quickly climbed down it and entered my house.

It was a rather simple house, just three rooms all and all, made out of thrash found in the wilderness and wood. The first two rooms wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a kitchen and a bedroom, filled with the regular furniture you could expect in a post-apocalyptic world. Although a surprising amount of trees survived the rain of bombs, they were scares enough that it was forbidden to cut them down just as you pleased. If you worked for three months you could get one tree, what you did with it after that was up to you.

I´d worked enough to earn a couple trees that was planted behind my house and provided me with a steady income of firewood and material. Both the kitchen and the bedroom were filled with both metallic and wooden furniture, although the metallic ones were steadily decreasing by the week.

The last room in the house was the smallest one, but also the most interesting one. Hidden behind an old bookshelf lay my workshop. One of the few places in the village were I knew that I could be of help to others. Everything else I did always seemed to burn down or explode or horribly injure half the population of the village...

Shaking my head, trying to rid my mind of those thoughts, I went over to the fireplace in the kitchen and woke the slumbering fire there to life again. Shuddering a little I started looking for something to eat in the house. A quick search later made me sigh in frustration(I could have sworn I had some meat left from that deer I killed a week ago)and with a grumble I decided to go to bed without dinner tonight.

But before I knew it I was outside again, this time with my notepad, sitting down by a small fire, scribbling both pictures and ideas down.

"Hiccup!"

The familiar voice made me look up from my scribbles and see how a very large, familiar figure was walking towards me in the darkness. The behemoth walking toward me looked like he could crush stone with his bare hands, he was nearly a head taller than me and was not someone you would want to mess with at first glance. But if you looked a little closer and you would see one of the gentlest, nerdiest and also smartest people in the village, and one of the few people in this village that resembled something that I could call a friend.

I raised my hand in return to his calling, not daring to say his name out loud, and turned back to my writing, not even looking at him when he sits down beside me and starts packing up the contents he brought in his bag.

To any one passing by it would have seemed like I was ignoring the gentle giant sitting beside me, but far from it, I was keeping an eye on his every movement, ready to run away at the smallest difference in his usual stance.

Difference meant trouble and trouble always seemed to find its way to me.

But nothing happened and soon all of the bags contents stood before me; freshly baked bread, smoked salmon, mead, salted meat, a stew made of deer and wild leak and even more courses that I couldn't bring myself to name.

My mind went blank, my mouth watered and all I could think was: "Food!" My hands were quickly moving towards the smorgasbord that stood before me but my instincts kicked in and, as I removed my hands from the food, I slowly raised my head to look that the man before me.

"Thank you", I whispered, only to be met with a blinding smile while the man nodded for me to dig in.

Not giving him a chance to chance to change his mind I dug in like a wolf, eating like it was my first meal in days.

"Easy, easy," the gentle giant said, "Don't want you to choke now, do we?"

"I have to eat quickly," I answered with a growl which made the giant frown and look a little bit disappointed. I continued to eat quietly and quickly for a while, doing my best to keep appearances, but soon a small laugh escaped from me and I couldn't control myself anymore.

While laughing like a maniac I pointed at the now confused giant, nearly screaming: "If I don you'll eat all of the food. Right Fishlegs?" Once again I collapsed in another attack of laughter.

"Hiccup, are you alright?" Fishlegs asked carefully, now he looked really scared. He was scared of me! Little Hiccup! Needless to say this made me laugh even more.

"Am I alright? You ask if I am alright? You ask this when the world has gone completely to hell, when we could die in a moments notice, when everything I do seem to end in a explosion, when my own father banishes me from my home, when I cant even use my own name?" The laughter had disappeared from my voice, it felt empty now, I felt empty.

What was left was only a shadow of who I used to be.

"Oh yes Fishlegs, I'm fine, I'm great," I said with my voice dripping with sarcasm as I stood up and started walking around in circles, muttering about how life was unfair and if I just could get one chance to prove myself I would be able to show everybody how great I...

"Hiccup? Hiccup? JACK!"

Before another second passed I had moved with lightning speed, hand placed over Fishlegs mouth, anger showing in my eyes.

"Don't say that name," I hissed, nearly suffocating Fishlegs as I pressed my hand harder against his mouth, "that name is dead, that person is dead! There is only me left now, only Hiccup, OK?"

When Fishlegs nodded his head rapidly to answer my question, I released his mouth and turned back to the food and the dancing flame.

"I think you should leave now."

* * *

I hated this feeling, this feeling of failure.

I had been so close, so close to bring back my friend to the land of the living, but the I had to screw it up and say his name. Stupid, stupid Fishlegs. I should have known that saying his name would send him over the edge, he was exiled only a year ago, why did I do that? I wanted to hit myself in my stupidity, I wanted Ja... Hiccup to hit me. To scream at me, to just show some kind of sign that my old friend was still there, hidden somewhere under the creature that had taken his place.

But not tonight, tonight I had screwed up. Stupid Fishlegs.

When he said I should leave, I knew it was over, there was no reason to try again, not tonight at least.

"Keep the food, you look like you need it." It hurt when he didn't answer me, but I knew what he had been through and I knew that it would take time for him to heal.

I walked away from hiccups house, into the darkness surrounding it, and started making my way down towards the village.

Hiccups house lay quite a way apart from the village, about a kilometer from the nearest house high on top of a mountain peak. Not the best location, but that was were the exiled people of the village lived. Berk couldn't afford to get rid of its population, we lost enough people as it was to dragons, there was no reason for us to help them in doing so. So whenever we had to exile a person we simply moved them to that mountain and left them there. It may sound cruel, but we live a cruel life, and we never left one of our own up there without a simple house and some supplies.

They would be allowed into the village at certain occasions and they would also be allowed to take dragon training, but everything else was taken from them: their birth name and home, the right to attend counsel meetings and they were never allowed to own more than what they were given or could make with their own hands. The only thing that could end you exile was either death or if you could kill a set number of dragons, the number depending on the degree of your crime.

No one knew how many dragons Hiccup had to kill, his exile had happened quickly and quietly.

One day he was there and the next he was gone. Only the counsel and Hiccup knew what his crime was and how many dragons he had to kill, or so they thought.

I had managed to sneak a look in Hiccups notebook when he was busy with something else and then I had quickly seen a large number scratched on the first page next to a sketchy drawing of something that looked like flying darkness: One!

"Tomorrow..."

The voice echoed around me, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere.

"What?"

"Tomorrow... tomorrow the dragons will attack again."

I quickly turned around and looked at the owner of the voice. Hiccup was still staring into the dancing flames of the fire. He seemed to be speaking to it just as much as he spoke to me.

"Tomorrow... will be a slaughter," This time Hiccup turned to me as he spoke, eyes filled with sadness. "Tomorrow... I have been an exile for a year, funny how fast time flies, isn't it?"

I didn't know what to feel, he was here, my friend was here, sitting right in front of me.

For the first time in a year my friend was back with us. I should be ecstatic, I should be thanking the gods, but the only thing I felt was sadness. I saw how much it hurt him to be like this, to be his old, happy, sarcastic self, and I realized how much of him was destroyed when the counsel exiled him.

"Hiccup, I... I." But he stopped me with a sad smile.

"Go, tell my da... the chief, about the approaching raid," He took a deep breath before he continued, "I know that you have been calculating their attack pattern at least five more times more than me. Just make sure you make them realize how close the next raid is. That's the only thing that could stop a slaughter, you know this as well as I do. Just tell the chief, he used to listen to you, maybe you could make him listen again."

Before I could answer, he stood up brushed of his pants and entered his house without another word, but not before he grabbed all the remaining food. I stared at the closed door for what seemed like an eternity before I shook my head with a sad smile on my lips.

_Exiled, shunned and hated by at least half of the village and he still cares about all of us, _I thought as I slowly made my way down the mountain to the village.

_Jack, I really hope you manage to kill that dragon._

* * *

The darkness surrounding me felt like a warm blanket around my body.

It shifted and moved like a living being, giving me both warmth and protection.

I wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep again, to forget about to cold harsh world that existed outside this darkness. But that was impossible. I had been awakened for a reason, and that reason would soon be clear. But not yet, please. Just let me sleep a little bit more, that's all I ask.

But the darkness around me wasn't warm any more, it wasn't the nice, soft blanket it had been just seconds ago. Now it was as cold and harsh as the outside world, ordering me to get get up and do its bidding.

No, please, I beg you... but my plea was only answered by a painful slap against my nose, which raised a small moan of pain, from my throat.

_GO! _The darkness orders as it hits me again. Hissing in pain, I followed its orders and walked to the cave entrance.

The cold wind made me shout in surprise and cast a longingly eye back into cave, but the darkness was relentless: _GO! _

With a small sigh I slowly spread my midnight-blue wings and as I throw myself into the sky, my usually green eyes turn black as I hear the darkness one final time:

_GO!_


	2. Two different eyes

_We can´t ignore this._

The voice coming from my father sounded wrong, twisted, like someone were controlling his own vocal cords. I was standing in the middle of the meeting hall, surrounded by dark shadows all around me. In front of me sat the council: Gobber,with his prosthetic left arm, looking incredibly bored for some reason, Spitelout, my uncle, smiling the darkest smile I had ever seen, the village elders whose names were long forgotten and... Stoick... my father.

_We can´t ignore this. _My fathers voice sounded again, making every bone in my body vibrate from the force of it. _You have to be punished for your crimes, Hiccup._

My eyes widened in shock; _Hiccup! But my name isn't... then that would mean... NO!_

I screamed that word over and over but no one listened, they just sat there and observed as I threw myself against them in anger and shock, only to be stopped by the iron chains that bound my arms and feet.

_No, no... Dad, you can´t do this, you can´t do this to your own son. Please, I beg of you anything but this. _But Stoick didn't even react to my pleading. He just sat there with an cold, calculating expression on his face, watching my soul getting shattered and my hope destroyed.

I kept screaming til my throat burned, my voice was hoarse and tears was running down my cheeks.

Finally I just lay there on the floor, chains digging in to my arms and legs, to tired to even care about the pain.

_You are hereby exiled until death. _This time it was Gobber who spoke, and when he did I couldn't help but to look up at him(old habits die hard, I guess.)His face looked like rock, gone were the mentor and friend I had worked under for so many years.

_You are hereby exiled until death... until death... death..._

The word repeated itself over and over. I wanted to fight it, to scream at it, to cry and beg it just to go away, but it just kept going:

_Death... Death... Death... Death..._

I flung myself at the people in front of me, chains suddenly gone, but my dad and the council had, just as the chains, also disappeared.

I was alone in the darkness, alone with my pain and suffering. I wanted to tell them that they where wrong, that I hadn't done anything wrong, that I didn't deserve this. But deep down, I knew it was useless. It had been my fault, my fault that **It **happened.

I knew it, my father and the council knew it. The only people that didn't really know what happened was the rest of the people living in the village, but they weren't stupid. They had guessed most of it already. Stoick made the right call... he... I... what I did was wrong... and in doing so I endangered the entire village and the people I loved.

My father... no **Stoick**... did the right thing by exiling me.

My tears had stopped flowing now, I stood up proudly, filled with mental strength I didn't know I had in me, and addressed the council that had suddenly appeared in front of me again.

_I understand, Stoick._

As soon as those words left my mouth, the world around me changed.

It twisted itself, creating new things and destroying the old ones. The council seemed to explode in a cloud of red mist. Gobber and my uncle started to shed their skin, much like a snake would, screams of pain echoing into my very soul as they lost every single human trait they ever had.

Horrified, I could only stare at them as they sprouted something that reminded me of dragons wings from their backs, scales red as blood slowly covered their whole bodies, their bones popping and twitching as their limbs were rearranged into impossible places. Heads slowly dissolving, allowing a newly shaped dragon head to take its old place. Their earlier screams were now gone, replaced with a manic, insane laughter. Horror filled my entire being, in the place of were my mentor and uncle just was, there now stood two, fully fledged, fire-breathing, human eating; Monstrous Nightmares.

_DEATH! _Both of the humans-now-turned-dragons, howled as they threw themselves against me, spewing fire and death all around them. Their claws and teeth dug into my body, a painful scream leaving my throat as they restrained me, blood flowing from my newly created wounds.

_Huh,must have punctured a lung, _I thought as blood slowly started to flow from my mouth, strangely calm about my approaching death. _Right arm crushed, liver ruptured, ribs two, three, and six broken, spine snapped in three... no, wait... four places... yep, this is pretty much it._

_Hiccup._

The sound of my new name made me look at the man I had called father for all my life.

He seemed... different from the man that exiled me just a few minutes ago, like he wished he wasn't here, didn't have to do this. But that couldn't be right, da... Stoick always did what he wanted, that was why he was the leader. You listed and obeyed him or you got crushed be his foot or beheaded by his axe.

Speaking of his axe, I couldn't help but notice that it was right there, clutched tightly in his right hand, uncomfortably close to my personal space. If I looked close enough at the gleaming metal, I could still see the blood from the Skrill it killed just a week ago. Old, small blobs was all that remained of that terrifying creature, and soon they would be covered in fresh blood.

_Hiccup._ Stoick repeated my name again as he raised the axe, as if he was trying to tell himself that, that was all that remained of me.

That his son, that Jack, was gone.

_May hel have mercy on your soul. _The words were quiet, whispered only to me as the axe started its deadly decent.

Sighing in defeat, I hung my head, whispering a quick prayer to Odin, only catching a quick glimpse of the axe as it fell.

And then...

I died.

* * *

Don't you just love it when you are allowed to wake up by yourself in the morning.

You know, that wonderful feeling of having to get up but you fell rested enough to do it?

No feeling of dread at having to wake up way to early because the fishing boat ships out early, or because a dragon found it hilarious to rip of the roof of your house... yeah, I love that feeling.

Today, I didn't get to experience that feeling, 'cause my so called friends, decided that it would be hilarious to, as they called it; wake the sleeping giant.

A very wet wake up call, a shocked scream and two people laughing their asses of later, I could be found running across Berk as fast as my big body would allow. Running in front of me was were the same people that woke me up, accompanied by all the death threats and promises of revenge that my newly awoken brain could come up with.

"Aww, come on, Al," The first one of the sleep disturbing monsters screamed at me, her voice echoing all over the village, "It wasn't that bad, now was it?"

"Yeah, Alan," the male counterpart of the horrible, soon to be crushed, monsters, snickered, "It wasn't even sea water like last time."

Meet Alice and Rick, or as Hiccup now calls them; Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Thorston, one of the few twin pairs this village have ever seen and some of the biggest delinquents the world have ever seen. If something went "Boom!" and a large cloud of smoke could be seen in the village, you could bet your first born on that at least one of the Thorston twins were involved somehow. At least it was that way now, since Hiccup was banished.

Alice was the older of the two. A whole minute older, a fact she never let her younger brother forget. With blond long hair, brown eyes, and a thin, well trained body, she was actually considered quite beautiful, but every one of her potential suitors were chased away when they met her crazy personality. She preferd being alone most of the time, training etheir bby herself or with Astrid. The only people she could be found being with by her free will was her brother, me, Snotlout and Astrid.

Rick on the other hand, loved attention. He could often be found calling himself "the worlds most dangerous weapon", not that it has ever been proved. Similarly looking to his sister except for a tattoo, he says its a birthmark, that cover his lower left side of his back.

Were Alice was the one with brawn, Rick was the one with a surprising amount of creativity.

Give him some sticks and stones and he would have a new way to kill dragons before you could say: The Thorston twins are a menace. That is, when he chose to use this creativity. Most of the times he could be found fighting with his sister, and she with him.

A large crash sent me back to the real world and made, only to see my path blocked by three large barrels that looked vaguely familiar... wait, that's the ale barrels me and my family made couple of days ago.

Since the world ended, the beer supplies disappeared in a blink of an eye. The end of the world was quite a bit easier when you could drown your sorrows in liquid poison and when the alcohol ran out, well... you can picture it enough, all the remaining villages made their own ale, and my family were Berks supplier of ale barrels.

It seemed the twins thought it would be a good idea to try and block me of. Stopping for a bit I looked over the barrels only to see Ruff laughing her as of as Tuff made rude gestures at me.

"Aww, can't the big giant climb over the tiny hill?" Ruff teased.

"Well, maybe he can read his way over it," Tuff laughed only to be cut of when I threw the thing closest to me at his head. Ironically, it was a book.

A cry of pain emanating from the male twin put a grin on my face as I heard Ruff dragging him away, calling that she would see me later.

Quickly thinking I turned left into a small ally, not jet satisfied with my vengeance.

* * *

For being two people trying to hide from my wrath, it was surprisingly easy to find the Thorston pair. I just had to follow the sounds of fighting and the screams of pain. And unsurprisingly they were fighting with each other.

It seemed to be one of those fights were everything was allowed, if you got your hands on it, you could use it. But at the same time, I knew I neither of them were in any real danger of hurting each other to much. They were siblings and siblings look after each other.

Shaking my head at their antics, thoughts of vengeance long gone, I turned around only to see something very sharp coming flying towards me. Quickly throwing myself out of the way, shouting a warning at the brawling twins behind me, only to find it completely unnecessary when the sharp object hit the house wall beside them, a voice accompanying the dull thud that followed.

"Look out, Al."

I could only stare at the big, brutish looking man that stood before me, who surprisingly had a kind of sheepish smile on his face.

Meet, and Odin help us all when it happens, the next leader of Berk; David "Snotlout" Jorgensson.

This young man was a perfect example of what we humans had been forced to become to survive.

Strong, commanding, merciless... deadly.

A kind of human that was made to survive the harsh world we now inhabited.

Sadly just because you were trained to be a leader, didn't mean you would be a good one.

Snoutlout was also a perfect example of this, always preferring to solve problems with his fist instead of his head. It actually went so far that there was small betting pool going on in the village, on how long it would take for Snoutlout to start a war with the other villages when he became chief.

Luckily he had people that could keep him in check, people to stop him from making something that all of us would regret in the future.

People like me, who could act as a tactical adviser both on the life in the village and on the battlefield.

People like; Ruff and Tuff, although their method was a bit... unorthodox. As if trying to prove my point, the twins suddenly flung themselves against the man who almost beheaded me, roaring their challenge.

People like...

"Are you guys fighting again?"

And this is the last person in our rag-tag group. Astrid Hofferson, the only person Hiccup didn't rename after his exile. Though that has probably something to do with the fact that hes had a crush on her since he was eight, much like the rest of the young men living in this village. Shes the best fighter in this years approaching dragon-training and the most likely candidate to win the honor of killing a nightmare next year after the training is complete.

A muffled "Astrid" could be heard form the pile of flailing limbs in front of us, its owner apparently to busy to untangle itself and talk to her like a normal human being.

Luckily, I wasn't in such a predicament and could address the newcomer without difficulties.

"God morning, Astrid."

"Morning," she said with a yawn.

"Sleepless night?"

"You could say that, have been on guard duty since midnight," she stopped another yawn, her whole posture lacking the usual; I can do anything, attitude. "And you? You don't seem very awake yourself."

"Yeah, thanks to those two and the chief," I said as I gestured at the fighting twins,"I didn't get much sleep either."

It had actually taken nearly the whole night to convince the chief that a dragon attack was coming.

Its really hard to try and prove something when you don't have any prof, and I couldn't mention that I got the in tell from Hiccup. Sure I had done some calculations myself and both of us had narrowed it down to the same week, but different days. Sadly I had to go with my gut feeling when telling the chief, no evidence to back me up. If Hiccup was wrong then at least we would be more ready for the future attack, but if I were wrong, then we would be caught completely of guard.

The choice had been simple and now the village was preparing for the attack that would probably happen tonight. I just hoped that...

"Al, your spacing out again." A friendly punch on the shoulder from Ruff brought me back to the land of the living, only to see that the small brawl was over and Snotlout was once again hitting on Astrid. She quickly answered by grabbing his wrist and twisting it painfully, causing Tuff to laugh at Snotlouts pain and soon another brawl was starting again.

Nodding at my now brawling friends, I quickly left, happy that they didn't inquire anything about _why_ the chief had kept me up all night. Everybody was actually kinda bored and the news of a possible dragon raid, now that would keep everyone on their toes.

Since there where no raids and Gobber wasn't ready to start the next class of dragon-trainees, there wasn't exactly mush to do, except train on our own or fight with each other...

Suddenly something wet hit me in the head back of my head with a large splat.

Recognizing the texture of it, I could only sigh as I slowly started to clean away bits of mud that were stuck in my hair, thinking: _Why am I friend with these guys again?_

Just when I had cleaned away the first pile of mud from the back of my head, three more splatters could be heard as my back was painted a lovely brown color.

Sighing again, but this time with a smile on my face, I slowly bent down and picked up the largest amount of mud I could gather.

"You're dead, Hofferson!" I shouted as I rushed toward my smiling friends.

_Oh yeah, that's why._

* * *

Night and day had switched places, darkness chased away the light only to retreat as soon as the light returned again.

Air around my wings, tail moving slowly with my body, correcting my flight path, keeping me in the air, in the sky. Darkness surrounds my eyes, my body, my mind.

Moving, hard, limbs heavy like stone, like a dream.

What is a dream?

Do I dream?

Am I, a dream?

_No,_ the voice in the darkness whispers. _You are you, you are me. You are the world you see around you. You live, you breath, you fight, you kill, you die. _

_You are life and life is you._

_You are cruel and evil!_

Why?

_That is who you are, that is who you always have been and that is who you always must be._

Why?

_Who knows? _

Who are you?

_I am you and I always will be._

Who were you before?

_...Before what?_

Before suffering, loneliness and death?

_...no one, I was no one. Only light and darkness, life and death._

Was it your fault...?

_NO... no little one, it wasn't. _The voice spoke with such power, such authority that I felt the air in my lungs leave my body at an unnatural speed, leaving me slightly panicked as I desperately forced down new air in them. That was a good reminder not to ask about that again. You would think that I would learn my place after being "punished" about a hundred times. But what can I say, I've always had stubbornness issues. Panting a little, I decided to try and sate my curiosity with other questions:

Who are those around me?

_What do you mean?_

My body suddenly felt lighter, the voice quieter. The darkness that had shrouded my green eyes mere seconds ago, was gone.

With a flick of my tail I dived down into the dark mass flying under me. Dark shapes as if they came straight from the darkest place of my mind. Claws that ripped apart, teeth that tore chunks, limbs that crushed, spikes that struck, fire that burned.

I was flying with killing machines.

They all hissed at me when I came near, but they all soon quieted down when they realized that I wasn't a threat. Something seemed to change within the group and suddenly they turned, heading for a collection of lights that was shining on the horizon.

What?

Why were they flying toward the human village? Did they have a death wish?

Quickly, I turned and flew closer to one of the dark shadows beside me, a Fire-wing.

Why are you flying toward the humans?

The older creature ignored me and kept going, his eyes dark and empty.

Hey, I'm talking to you!

Another dragon, a Lava-wing this time, flew up to my side and motioned for me to keep going, nudging me gently in the side. I avoided him, expertly twisting myself out of his way, only to place myself directly in front of a Sharp-wing.

Closing my wings, I dropped like a stone effectively avoiding the razor sharp wings that gave the dragon its name. A snort could be heard from the Lava-wing that nudged me, before it continued with its brethren toward the village. Slowing down, I watched as the huge grope of dragons moved above me, as many as a hundred, nobody seemingly caring about the suicidal attack they were about to partake in.

Why do they do that?

_Do what?_

Why do they fly of towards certain death? Why do they not care when I talk to them? They must know about the humans that live in that village, right? Of how they nail the heads of our killed brethren on the walls of their homes. And of how they only exist to kill all of us!

_Who knows...? Let's find out._

What?

But the voice was silent once again and the feeling of heaviness slowly filled my body again.

My mind went numb, limbs... heavy. Hard to see, can't think. Eyes black again.

The last thing I remember was how I roared my challenge as I flew at breakneck speed toward the village.

* * *

Eyes opening slowly, lips parted in a silent scream, body unnaturally stiff.

What a great way to wake up after a nightmare!

_Okay, sarcasm still works, excellent... _I thought with a painful smile. ..._and now I also use sarcasm when I think, great._

Slowly lifting my head, neck screaming in protest, I observed my surroundings.

Blueprints and strange contraptions were scattered all around me, failures and successes alike.

An old net-cannon that had worked perfectly until the nightmare had decided to set it self on fire.

A fire proof shield, based on old world technology, that actually worked really well, problem was it was really hard to carry something as large as an small car.

Wait, scratch that part about successes, only failures could be found in here.

A sharp smell hit my nose, telling me that I had accidentally knocked over a small test tube during the night, another failed experiment involving a dangerous mixture of nitroglycerin and acid, don't ask! It appeared that I had fallen asleep in my workshop again.

Signing loudly, I slowly stood up, making the joints in my body pop back into place with a small stretch.

_Another day, another job,_ I thought lazily as I made my way toward the kitchen to take a look at today's work order.

Although it was forbidden for the people in the village to interact with me and me with them, it didn't stop some of them, like Fishlegs and my mentor Gobber.

We had a, sort of, secret agreement him and me, Gobber I mean. I built anything he asked me to build and he gave my any material I asked of, with limitations of course.

Not even Gobber was ready to give an exile access to the villages limited explosive supplies, no matter how good friends we were before. But maybe that had to do with that he knew what would happen if I got my hands on it, he had lost way to many eyebrows thanks to my experiments with explosives. Not that any of them had been my fault, how was I supposed to know that he would stick his head into the blacksmith just as I lit the fuse? To be fair, I had told him to duck...

and I'm rambling once again... anyway.

As I made my way towards the outer door to look at the list Gobber had left a low growl could be heard form outside. This should have been my first warning, but my tired head brushed it of as the dog that used to walk around my house, looking for something to eat.

The second warning appeared when a loud boom could be heard echoing through the village. This time I reacted to it, moving more slowly towards the door.

The third and final waring came just before I opened the door. Why was it so quiet? Every single animal seemed to have disappeared from existence since that earlier blast, even the crickets were quiet. That wasn't right, insects didn't care about battle and death. They only saw dead body's as a new source of food.

Even more terrified now I slowly opened the door all the way, only for my body to freeze.

There, right in front of me stood a creature of darkness, its body blending in so well with the background it seemed to be dissolving any light that landed on it.

Its eyes were staring at me, looking at me as a cat looks at a mouse, like I was prey.

Slowly our eyes met and I couldn't help but to notice something very strange about the dragons eyes.

It had two different eyes:

One green and one black.

* * *

**And a cliffhanger, sorry about that =D**

**Please note that English isnt my primary language. Im a Swede, so writing will take time for me.  
**

**Questions? pm me and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.  
**

**Please pm me if you find something wrong with the text.  
**

_**Solum**_


End file.
